21 NEW FLU CASES LAST WEEK, 5 DEATHS|流感重症上週增21例5死 高峰期恐提前

The first cold spell of the season arrived in Taiwan with lower temperatures of 13 and 14 degrees Celsius in northern taiwan. With this comes the fear of more influenza outbreaks. Last week, there were 21 new cases and 5 deaths from flu, a new weekly high. Doctors worry that the virus is mutating. The Centers for Disease Control say that this is just the start of the epidemic and it has not yet reached its peak. Temperatures in northern Taiwan will fall to 13 or 14 degrees as the first cold spell of the season arrives and it will stay cold until Dec.17. Along with the cold weather comes a rise in influenza, with 21 new severe flu cases reported last week and five deaths. Three men and two women died, all around 70 years old. ==LIN YUNG-CHING CDC immunization doctor== Among the five who died, four had not had the flu vaccination this year. The time from diagnosis to death was between 3 to 12 days. The main cause of death was pneumonia with breathing difficulties or septic shock. The CDC said the five deaths last week were a new single week high. So far this season there have been 205 cases and 24 deaths. National Taiwan University Hospital said in the past there were always severe cases of flu in December, but this year it had seen severe cases in November. Doctors believe that the localized H3N2 virus is mutating and the public needs to be aware. The weather so far this season has been warm and the number of enterovirus cases has risen over past weekly levels to a level meriting a warning. ==LIU TING-PING Dir. CDC Vaccination Center== Certainly it is noticeable that even though it is December, temperatures are still quite high. However, we estimate the virus should not proliferate further and as temperatures fall, cases will drop. The CDC said that currently enterovirus is localized and mainly the Kawasaki type A virus. Although the weather is cooling, the public still need to pay careful attention to personal hygiene. TRANSLATED BY：CLARE LEAR 入冬的第一波冷氣團今晚報到，北台灣低溫將下探13、14度，會一直冷到周六清晨。上週全台新增21例流感重症病例，其中5人死亡，分別是3男2女，年齡都在70歲以上。 ==疾管署防疫醫師 林詠青== 五位裡面有四位 是沒有接種當季的流感疫苗 從發病到死亡的期間 大概是3到12天 主要死亡的原因 是因為併發肺炎 呼吸衰竭 或者是敗血性休克 疾管署表示，上周五人流感死亡，創下本次流感季單週新高，而本季流感重症累計205例，已經造成24人死亡。台大醫師提醒，過去12月才會出現流感重症病例，但今年台大在11月初就收治多名重症個案，醫師擔心目前社區主要流行的H3N2病毒可能正在突變，要提高警覺。 另外今年12月氣溫偏暖，腸病毒疫情相較前幾週，就醫人數還是超出流行警戒值。 ==疾管署疫情中心主任 劉定萍== 的確大家都可以觀察到 最近已經到12月了 氣溫都還相當高 不過我們的預期是覺得 疫情應當是不會再上去 可能隨著氣候慢慢變冷 疫情會慢慢下來 疾管署表示，目前腸病毒仍在社區流行，以克沙奇A型為主，雖然天氣逐漸轉冷，疫情可望趨緩，但民眾還是要提高警覺，做好個人衛生及保暖。 記者 王柏文 吳嘉堡 台北報導